1. CREATED BY SUSAN MARKHAM NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE OCTOBER 2013 VIRGINIA MUNICIPAL LEAGUE WOMEN IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT LUNCHEON Women as Equal Partners in the Process of Democratic Development

2. Education

3. Maternal Health

4. Employment

5. Early Marriage

6. Peace

7. Land Ownership

8. Violence Against Women

9. Women in Parliament

10. Women as Ministers and Heads of State

11. Why Women? “The politi­cal participation of women results in tangible gains for democracy, including greater responsiveness to citizen needs, increased cooperation across party and ethnic lines, and more sustainable peace.” ~ Madeleine Albright

12. Why Women? Higher standards of living

13. Why Women? Marginalized voters represented

14. Why Women? Collaborative leadership styles

15. Why Women? Party lines crossed

16. Why Women? Responsive to constituency needs

17. Why Women? Peace builders

18. Conditions for Women’s Participation Reasonable access to positions of power

19. Conditions for Women’s Participation Transparency in political and legislative process­es

20. Conditions for Women’s Participation Citizens must be willing to accept new ideas about gender roles in society

21. Conditions for Women’s Participation Ability of women to attain financial autonomy or access to economic resources

22. Conditions for Women’s Participation Political will

23. National Democratic Institute NDI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization that has supported democratic institutions and practices in every region of the world for more than two decades.

24. Women’s Political Participation at NDI NDI believes that equitable participation of women in politics and government is essential to building and sustaining democracy.

25. NDI Program Areas Citizen Participation Political Parties Governance Elections Special Initiatives and Partnerships Information and Communication Technologies Monitoring and Evaluation

26. Key Concepts Sex vs. gender

27. Key Concepts Women are not a homogeneous group

28. Key Concepts “Gender mainstreaming”

29. Key Concepts En­gaging men to empower women

30. Why not more women?

31. The future

32. Thank you Susan A. Markham Director, Women's Political Participation | National Democratic Institute (NDI) Tel: (202) 728-5512 | smarkham@ndi.org | Skype: smarkham63 www.ndi.org | www.iknowpolitics.org | Twitter: ndiwomen